The piano man from Virginia, Bruce Hornsby, had a streak of big hits in the 80s beginning with his signature song, "The Way It Is," which soared to #1 in 1986. It was the title track from his smash debut album, which also spawned "Mandolin Rain" (#4), and "Every Little Kiss" (#14). On the heels of this success, he won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1986. He rode this wave of popularity for a while longer, scoring with follow-up hits from his sophomore record like "The Valley Road" (#5) and "Look Out Any Window" (#35). He'd score one more top 40 single in 1990 with "Across The River," which reached #18, before vanishing from the charts as quickly as he came. Hornsby continued to release new music that incorporated his jazz and bluegrass influences; great stuff, just not radio-friendly. Hornsby has also co-written hits by others, most notably "Jacob's Ladder," which Huey Lewis & The News took to #1 in 1987 and "The End Of The Innocence," which Don Henley took to #8 in 1989. "The Wild Frontier" goes back to his wonderful debut record. It could have been a fourth charting single in my opinion.
You could not have been alive in the 90s and not heard of Hootie & The Blowfish, the pop rock band from South Carolina that burst onto the scene in 1994 to offer an alternative to alternative. "Hold My Hand," which featured David Crosby on backing vocals, soared to #10 and was followed by three more successful singles: "Let Her Cry" (#9 and a Grammy winner), "Only Wanna Be With You" (#6, their biggest hit), and "Time" (#14). I've no doubt part of band's phenomenal success is due to the fact that people loved saying their name. The band quickly followed up their hit debut record in 1996, before they had a chance to cool off. "Fairweather Johnson" was a clunker, but still gave the band two additional top 40 hits. If this were a stronger record, the band might have stayed on everyone's radar for a longer period of time. But by 1998's "Musical Chairs," which was a much better album, people had become a little disenchanted. The lead off single, "I Will Wait," performed respectively at #18, but it would be their last chart hit. "Musical Chairs" has several other tunes that got lost in the mix. "Only Lonely" is very much in the vein of "Let Her Cry" and remains one of my favorite Hootie non-hits. Also worthy of mention is "Home Again" and "Wishing." The band released a couple more albums before Darius Rucker embarked on a successful solo career in country music.
Led by vocalists Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, Philadelphia musicians The Hooters rose to fame in the mid-80s with their breakthrough smash record, "Nervous Night," which spawned two staples of 80s radio: "And We Danced" (#21) and "Day By Day" (#18). It always surprised me that The Hooters weren't bigger than they were. "Nervous Night" could have been mined for better singles than "All You Zombies" and "Where Do The Children Go," (that's Patty Smyth on backing vocals, by the way) which landed at #58 and #38, respectively. The title track, "Hanging On A Heartbeat," and "South Ferry Road" were favorites of mine. The band dropped the ball in a big way with their follow-up record, "One Way Home." I blame this record for why the band never saw the top 40 again. The record alienated fans and certainly failed to capture new ones with the lumbering songs that meandered on and on as if searching for a hook. But they went back to basics in 1989 and "Zig Zag" was filled with a bunch of great tunes that rival those on "Nervous Night." Day late, dollar short. And they released a stinker as a single. Despite backing vocals from Peter, Paul, & Mary, "500 Miles" couldn't get past #97, leaving greater tunes like "Brother Don't You Walk Away," "You Never Know Who Your Friends Are," and "Beat Up Guitar" to go unheard. I particularly love the prescient song, "Give The Music Back." Purists at their core, The Hooters prided themselves on raw talent and the use of authentic instruments over machines and processing. The song quite accurately predicted the demise of real talent in music. More trivia: they're not named after what you might think. Hooter is the nickname of Hyman's keyboard-harmonica. Bazilian and Hyman collaborated on some of Cyndi Lauper's big hits, and Bazilian wrote Joan Osborne's huge 1995 hit, "One Of Us."
I came to know this wonderful singer/songwriter from Alabama when I heard his 2004 record, "Uncomplicated." It is actually Ellis Hooks's third record, but the title emphasizes his style: no-nonsense songs played with integrity and heart. Hooks has a voice like Sam Cooke but writes a bit like James Taylor. Hugely underrated, but raw talent usually is. "Forty Days & Forty Nights" captures the essence of his sound - if you dig it, also check out "Gonna Take Some Time," "It's A Hassle," and the title track.
What a travesty that Australian band Hoodoo Gurus never found mainstream success in the US. The band had a string of stellar records in the 80s and 90s and started to create a buzz with their early work like "Bittersweet" and "Like Wow/Wipeout" (and the often overlooked gem, "Death Defying") from their 1985 record, "Mars Needs Guitars!" The band started out a little quirky, but their next album was a consistent offering of radio-friendly pop rock. In 1987, "What's My Scene?" went into the top 3 in Australia, but couldn't gain traction here in the US. Other greats from the album "Blow Your Cool" include "I Was The One" and "Out That Door." Not even having the trademark harmonies of The Bangles helped get "Good Times" onto the radio. A few more notable singles poked their heads up through the years, like "Come Anytime" and "Miss Freelove '69," but still no dice. In 1994, the band released their 6th record, "Crank," which continued to impress. It rocked more than previous efforts, but never lost sight of smart melodies and harmonies. "You Open My Eyes" is one of the best songs of the 90s in my opinion.
Hoobastank is a hard rock band from California that got a lot of airplay in the 2000s. They stormed onto the scene in 2002 when "Crawling In The Dark" reached #68, followed by the next single, "Running Away," going to #44. Their next record arrived in 2004 and gave them their biggest but final chart hit when the power ballad "The Reason" soared all the way to #2. The band continued to make some excellent records, but radio was no longer paying attention for some reason. In 2009, my favorite Hoobastank record arrived, called "For(N)ever." Filled with some of their most diverse yet radio-friendly material, the record still failed to put the band back on the Top 100. In addition to the rocking anthem, "My Turn," there's another killer ballad in "You're The One" and a terrific mid-tempo track called "Tears Of Yesterday."
Many fans of 80s rock have wondered why Canadian band Honeymoon Suite didn't have more chart success in the US along with similar acts like Foreigner and Survivor. The band got off to a promising start when their first single "New Girl Now" went to #57 in 1984. They followed this up in 1986 with their best chart hit, "Feel It Again," which reached #34. Despite being featured in the John Cusack film, One Crazy Summer, the soaring ballad "What Does It Take" stalled at #52. The track also appears on their 1985 record, "The Big Prize," which also yielded "Feel It Again." The group would have one more minor hit in 1988 when "Love Changes Everything" got to #91. The band has stayed true to their AOR style and continues to put out new records every now and then to this day.
